Soft on Whom?   

A May Gallup poll of public confidence in the media showed that 62 percent of Americans believe the media to be inaccurate, while only 36 percent believe them to be accurate--near historic lows set in December 2000. A September Gallup poll indicated 45 percent of Americans believe the news media to be too liberal, while only 14 percent believe them to be too conservative.

For anyone wondering why there is so much distrust, why the media seems to be so out of touch with the sentiments of so many Americans, the prosecution enters the October/November issue of American Journalism Review as Exhibit A.

First, there is AJR Editor and Senior Vice President Rem Rieder's tendentious accusation in "Patriot Games" that President Bush's case for war in Iraq rested on "WMD that supposedly had us on the eve of destruction" and the slender reed of "Saddam's supposed links to terrorism."

An accurate quotation of President Bush's January 29 State of the Union address shows just how badly Rieder and others in the media have turned reality on its head in order to advance an ideological agenda: "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words and all recriminations would come too late."

Then there are the self-validating, self-righteous, arrogant quotations in Rachel Smolkin's "Are the News Media Soft on Bush?" and Lori Robertson's "Baghdad Urban Legends." Former CNN executive Frank Sesno affirms Eric Alterman's thesis of the myth of the liberal media while simultaneously providing a practical demonstration of the Gallup Organization's findings: "There were legitimate complaints by the right a few years ago, but now the pendulum has swung wildly to the other side in terms of radio and talk shows on television."

"I don't want it to sound like I think Americans are dumbbells," asserts Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, joining Sesno as a citizen of some other, vastly erudite nation. But that's precisely what such unrestrained voices are saying to their fellow journalists.

We may wait indefinitely for the cover story "Are the News Media Soft on Saddam Hussein?" and "Altruistic Media Urban Legends." For anyone interested in such subjects, read New York Times correspondent John F. Burns' contribution to "Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq." Burns calls the media's obsequiousness to Saddam Hussein "an absolutely disgraceful performance." "There is corruption in our business," Burns declares. "We need to get back to basics. This war should be studied and talked about. In the run up to this war, to my mind, there was a gross abdication of responsibility."

Jonathan Gurwitz
Columnist
San Antonio Express-News
San Antonio, Texas